Another panel OKs Hawaii LTC study bill

Supporters of private long-term care insurance (LTCI) have won a partial victory in Hawaii.

Members of the Hawaii House Finance Committee have voted 16-0 with one excused absence to approve a bill, H.B. 1, that calls for the director of the state executive office on aging to commission a study of the idea of setting up a mandatory, government-run, limited-benefit long-term care insurance (LTCI) program in the state.

But the version of the bill that the committee approved, H.B. 1, H.D. 2, includes provisions calling for the study team to look at the idea of creating tax incentives for the purchase of private LTCI and the idea of creating the kind of private LTCI-Medicaid benefits coordination partnership that many other states have.

The original version of the bill did not include a recommendation for the study to include private LTCI tax incentives or the LTCI partnership concept.

Rep. Sylvia Luke, the chair of the Finance Committee, noted that the committee made technical changes in the version of the bill it received and also changed the effective date to July 1, 2030, from July 1, 2013, to "facilitate further discussion."

Two other Hawaii House committees also have approved versions of H.B. 1.